


Imperfect

by lod



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Scars, Sleepovers, everything is souyo, so not really souyo but still, souyo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-12 22:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20572307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lod/pseuds/lod
Summary: For the prompt "a kiss... on a place of insecurity."A little fluffy pre-relationship snippet of a story, about scars and emotional vulnerability and friendship.





	Imperfect

**Author's Note:**

  * For [treya_barton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/treya_barton/gifts).

Yu was kneeling at the table in his bedroom, distractedly folding some origami cranes while he waited for Yosuke to finish showering. His room here in Tokyo wasn’t as big as the one he’d had in Inaba, but he had his own TV with his console hooked up to it, and enough space for two futons side-by-side; all the essentials for a great weekend. Yosuke’s bag, bright orange and teal, sat by the door still unpacked. Yu kept glancing at it; Yosuke’s visit had been a last minute gift from his parents for good grades on his last exams, and Yu still couldn’t quite believe his best friend was actually _here_.

Moving back to Tokyo hadn’t been horrible; there was always something to do here, new books to buy, delicious restaurants to try. The problem was that despite all the crowds he walked through every day, or perhaps because of them, Yu was _lonely_. His new friends were more of acquaintances and they rarely met outside of school. Rise and Naoto were both in town, but they were so busy balancing a third year courseload with their jobs that they’d only managed to squeeze in one dinner together so far. Having Yosuke here for two whole days with nothing planned but spending time together was going to be awesome… if Yosuke ever got out of the shower, that was.

After another ten minutes, Yosuke finally came back into the room with a towel around his shoulders and nothing more than boxers on.

“Maaaan,” he sighed loudly, “that felt good. Traveling sucks. Next time, you’re coming to Inaba.”

Yu stared at the water sliding off Yosuke’s hair and down his neck. A drop splashed onto the floor, startling him out of his trance.

“Hey, don’t get water all over my room,” he warned.

Yosuke reached up to touch at his hair, a mischievous smile breaking out on his face when he realised it was still dripping.

“Oh?” he asked innocently, coming to stand over Yu. “You mean you _don’t_ want a free shower?” Saying that, he shook his head, sending droplets flying all over Yu and his paper cranes.

“Ah! You dick,” Yu said, laughing and rolling aside to try to dodge the water.

Yosuke came closer, clearly intent on continuing his attack, but Yu froze as he noticed Yosuke’s leg.

“What’s that?”

There was a large scar running down the front of Yosuke’s left thigh. It didn’t seem recent, but it was still very visible.

Yosuke looked embarrassed, turning aside and flushing a bit as he replied. “I broke my leg falling off the top of a swing when I was a kid, had to get surgery.”

“I’ve never seen it before!” Yu said, almost accusingly. They were supposed to be _best friends_, best friends didn’t keep secrets about huge scars on their legs.

“...Yeah, I keep it hidden it usually. Not exactly a good look,” Yosuke replied, still sounding ashamed. He stepped forward, presumably to grab his bag, but Yu grabbed his leg and held him in place.

Leaning forward, he traced a finger down the scar, surprised at the rough texture of the skin. Yosuke shivered at his touch, and without really planning it, Yu leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the middle of the scar.

“_Partner?!_”

Yu dropped Yosuke’s leg like it was on fire and scooted away frantically. “I, um, I—sorry!”

“_Dude_, what was that?” Yosuke asked, staring at him.

“It’s…” Yu scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling an uncharacteristic blush rising in his face. “It’s, how you kiss injuries on little kids so they’ll feel better? Well, um. That.”

“Uh, you know I’m not a kid, right? Anyway, it doesn’t hurt. Happened like ten years ago.”

“I know,” Yu replied, wishing he could teleport anywhere but here. “But…_emotionally_.” He whispered the last, hoping Yosuke wouldn’t hear it and feeling forty-five shades of ridiculous.

“_Emotionally??_”

“I’m sorryyy,” Yu moaned as he finally gave in to his urge to hide, folding up on himself and putting his head in his arms. He was _such _a _weirdo_, he finally had his friend around after months apart and here he was making it absolutely, completely awkward because of his goddamn dumb _mothering_ instinct.

Yosuke didn’t reply right away, leaving Yu to grow more anxious. Suddenly, a weight draped itself over Yu’s back, and Yosuke burst out laughing.

“Oh my god, partner. You tried to kiss my _emotional booboo _away?”

Yu tried to burrow even deeper into his arms. He was going to die right here, of pure embarrassment. Yosuke wouldn’t even let him die in peace, prying him back upright while still laughing.

“C’mon, stop hiding. It’s not _that_ big a deal. Kinda nice, really.”

“Nice?” Yu said incredulously.

“Well, not like, the k—_kiss_, Yosuke said, stumbling over the word, “but, you know. Wanting to help. You’re the first person to see this scar in years.”

“Really? What about gym class? Or the onsen!” Yu asked, now realising it was odd he’d never seen it before, as he and Yosuke had changed side-by-side often enough back in Inaba.

“Pff,” Yosuke scoffed. “What do you take me for, an amateur? I wrap my towel just right at the onsen to hide it, and in gym class I always pick a locker in a corner so I can change with no one looking at me.”

“Oh. I never noticed… Why do you hide it, anyway? It’s not that bad.”

Yosuke looked down at his own leg, running a hand over the scar. “I know it may be surprising considering how _awesome _I am now,” he winked, “but I wasn’t a very cool kid back in elementary. My parents would give me these awful haircuts that made my hair stick straight out of my head like some deranged porcupine, and I was always kinda daydreaming and missing what people’d said … figured I wasn’t gonna give anyone any extra ammo to make fun of me. You know how kids are, they’d have called me ‘frankenstein’ all year or something. Got a little better when I started picking my own haircuts and clothes and all that, but… I dunno. I guess I was used to hiding it by then.”

“So why’d you let me see it now, then?”

Yosuke pushed his bangs up off his forehead and shrugged.

“Felt kinda dumb sneaking around in a towel when you already know all my deepest secrets, I guess. It’s not like you’d judge me.”

“Of course I wouldn’t,” Yu agreed, “ and anyone who would isn’t worth the time of day.”

“I s’pose.”

“Actually, I bet you could use it to your advantage. Make up a cool story about it, like… ‘I got caught in the middle of a knife fight in a dark alley and I used my leg to protect someone from an attack!’ The girls would be all over you.”

Yosuke snorted.

“What, you don’t like my story? Fine, what about this then: ‘I donated my femur to a dying child and saved their life.’”

“You can do that?!”

Yu gave Yosuke a flat stare. “No. Obviously not. Why would a dying kid need your femur? And how would you walk without it?”

“Right, of course. Heh, I totally knew that,” Yosuke replied, looking intently away at what was apparently a very interesting section of wall.

Yu wondered, as he regularly did, how his best friend could be both so smart and yet so very dumb.

“Ok, I have a serious one—‘I got attacked by a shark and it tore my leg open.’ Sounds cool, but not like you get into fights.”

“A shark that perfectly tore a straight line in my thigh, but didn’t attack any other part of me?” Yosuke patted Yu’s shoulder comfortingly. “Maybe stick to telling the truth when you try to flirt with girls, partner.”

“Whatever, my ideas are great,” Yu replied with a pout.

Yosuke ignored him, standing and toweling his hair off at last before pulling pajamas out of his duffle bag.

“Now, are you ready to get your ass kicked at Star Forneus, or what?”

Yu reached over to turn his TV on and grab his controllers. “You keep telling yourself that.”

Yosuke returned to sit next to him, now fully clothed, and knocked their shoulders together as the game booted up.

“Thanks, yeah?”

“Hmm? What for?”

“Just… being you, I guess,” Yosuke replied a bit cryptically. “Always saying the right thing. Don’t change, partner.”

It wasn’t usual for Yosuke to be so direct about his feelings; he tended to show his affection with actions rather than put it in words. It left Yu struggling to put together any sort of reply. He didn’t _always_ say the right thing, obviously. He did try his best, though, and knowing Yosuke noticed, and appreciated it, made him feel a strange warm emotion he couldn't quite place. He was so distracted that Yosuke knocked his character out in approximately 3 seconds flat, snapping him out of it. It was all well and good to be _vulnerable_ and _emotionally open_ but his pride as a Forneus champion was on the line here, and he’d be damned if he was going to let Yosuke take the lead.

“Lost your touch, partner?” Yosuke said mockingly.

“Oh, just try and catch me! I’m gonna grind your bones to _jelly_!”


End file.
